Millions of children unable to go to school

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Millions of school-age children throughout Indonesia have been unable to continue their education, due in large part to the lingering effects of the 1997 financial crisis, according to ministry of education officials.

Director General of Primary and Secondary Schools Indra Djati Sidi said in a hearing at the House of Representatives here on Wednesday that 27 percent of school-age children were unable to attend school since the beginning of the country's financial woes four years ago.

"But there has been no progress since then," Indra said at a hearing with the House Commission VI for education and religious affairs here on Wednesday.

If the percentage has remained the same in 2001, the number of children who are out of school would be more than eight million. This is based on last year's data that the number of school age children nationwide was 33.5 million.

Indra did not specifically mention the reasons why the children had to leave their schools except to say that "various expansion projects" such as an open school system had to be abandoned due to a lack of funds.

It is also understood that many parents have not been able to pay their children's schools fees after the crisis struck.

The government won praise in 1994 when it made it compulsory for school-age children to take at least nine years of basic education.

Minister of National Education Abdul Malik Fadjar, who was also present during the hearing, said that the 2004 target of the program would be revised.

Indra said that just maintaining the 73 percent who were attending school was difficult.

Legislators attributed the education failure to a lack of seriousness or corruption rather than a lack of funds.

Suwondo, a member of Commission VI, said that many state schools still required students to pay various fees on top of their normal school fees, but there was no punitive action from the education authorities.

One agency that asked for such a payment was the Compensating Body for Education Implementation (BP3), he said.

In many instances, the amount of money required from students is greater than their school fees.

"BP3 is often in collusion with school principals," he added.

Another legislator Aris Munandar said the education failure was also reflected from the many truants who are often seen during school hours.